Mother's Day and Tummy Time

It was Mother's Day today and the kiddos and Eric spoiled me rotten. We went to church and got to show Oliver off to all our church family. Then we stopped by Eric's mom's house to see her and wish her a happy Mother's Day. Then we went home. And Eric took care of pretty much everything all day. He made lunch, changed diapers, ran to the grocery store, changed more diapers, baked dessert, made dinner, handled bedtime. He even let me take a nap with Oliver. It was a great day. I didn't get a picture with all my kiddos but I did get this sweet one of Mr. Oliver having some tummy time.

Fishing with Daddy

Andrew has been asking to go fishing for months and Eric has struggled to find a good weekend to go with him that it wasn't freezing cold or pouring down rain or so packed with activities that there was no time left.

But since this weekend was nice and Oliver is home and doing well, Eric decided to give fishing a try. He took the boys to the juvenile pond at Jennings Park so they could give it a try. They had freshly stocked the pond so the odds were good that they boys would catch something.

At first it was slow going and nothing was biting but then Andrew got a bite and things got really exciting from then on.

Zane ended up catching one big fish and Andrew caught two smaller fish. They were both so excited but they showed it in different ways. Andrew was excited but in a calmer, more reserved way. He probably would have stayed at the pond and fished for the rest of the day.

Zane was apparently so excited that he started doing a dance. A jig, right at the side of the lake. I didn't see it but he is pretty wild so I can only imagine that it was quite a sight to behold.

Once they got home they faked me out with dejected looks about how they didn't catch any fish. Then Zane comes flying up the stairs and THROWS a bag of dead fish into the living room. After the initial shock (and yelling about how fish guts don't come out of carpet and stink to high heaven) we headed outside to take some pictures and clean fish.

The girls and Reid were all very excited for the boys. Although I think Gwen was a bit like me (slightly disgusted) and stayed inside. Lucy and Reid watched the fish cleaning and helped prep the fish for eating tonight. It will be interesting to see if the boys actually eat their catch. Last time they caught fish, years ago, they wouldn't touch it afterwards. But they are so proud of their fish maybe they will manage to eat it this time.

Settling In

Everyone is starting to get used to Oliver being in the house. There has been a lot of baby holding going on and a little bit of tantruming over laps being occupied but nothing more than I expected. Reid has been quite chill about adding a brother and other than the few times that I have been nursing and he wanted me he is pretty good. Although mostly Oliver has just slept and my hands have been quite free.

I offered to let Zane hold Oliver since everyone was taking a turn. He said he wanted to and then promptly opened up his book and started reading. Such a difference from when Reid was born. Then Zane only had a 3 minute attention span for holding a baby and if I wasn't watching he was inclined to just dump Reid on the couch and walk away. Now that there is something he can do while holding a baby it seems to keep him still a lot longer.

Oliver Meets His Siblings

The kids were SOOOOOO excited to meet their new little brother. Andrew and Zane were at school all day and then had to wait even longer until Oliver decided to make an appearance so they could come to the hospital and meet him. Eric let the kids hold their new brother in order of age. Andrew got to go first and was as proud as could be. Zane was a very close second. He really does love babies and has gotten so much better about adding them to our family.

Lucy was over the moon. Seriously and completely enthralled with her new baby brother. She has been such a nervous wreck for the past week while we waited for baby to come that I didn't know how she would react but she was all smiles and so thrilled to see him. She seemed frustrated that Oliver wasn't an easier name to say but she got all the sounds out and in the right order and that made her go from crying to laughing. Gwen got on board with the name right away and for all that she said she "hates boys" she surely seemed to like her little brother. I bypassed the 'boy' part and just asked her if she thought he was cute and very sweet. She smiled and said yes. Then she wouldn't stop touching his sweet little face and head and checking out his little ears. I think all is going to be fine with her and Oliver.

Reid was a total quantity unknown in this puzzle of kids. He would point to my tummy and say baby but it is hard to know exactly how much of it he understood. However he was so excited to see Oliver and wanted to hold him right away. He walked over to Andrew (when Andrew was having his turn holding Oliver) with his arms out as though Andrew was supposed to just hand the baby over to him. Yeah, we are going to have to watch him like a hawk! When it was finally his turn he was enthralled. And he was less excited to see me than I thought he would be. I think me being in the bed and wearing something unfamiliar was unnerving to him.

The next few days will be a big adjustment at home. The kiddos are all so excited and it is going to be a three ring circus of people wanting to hold Oliver. But we will survive it and the thrill will eventually wear off and it will be back to business as usual with all of us.

Hello Oliver Benjamin

After our decision on Tuesday to come in for an induction on Wednesday morning it was like a wave of calm settled over me. Well, calm and stress because I didn't want to end up with a C-section which I know is an increased possibility when you opt for an induction. But the desire to meet this little man that I had been housing for the last nine months out weighed the stress that those possibilities presented so with much excitement Eric and I headed to the hospital at 6:30 am Wednesday morning.

After checking in we ended up with a room that faced the water. Eric was about beside himself with excitement. All our babies have been born at this hospital and this is the first time we have had this view. It proved to be a wonderful day for Eric to enjoy his view and was one of his favorite parts of the day.

Check-in was short and then we had to go through all of the medical history with the nurse while we waited for the orders to start my induction. This proved to be the longest part of the day. Usually I am in very active labor and quite distracted when we do that part so it was odd to take care of it before anything baby related started. Apparently the staff was not as anxious as I was to get a baby out!

Finally with all the paperwork done we started the antibiotics. Because I do not have long labors we wanted to be sure that we got all the meds in before we did anything crazy like break my water. So at 11:30 we started the antibiotics and at 1:30 they started my pitocin. I was really nervous about pitocin because I have heard so many horror stories about bumping it up to fast and horrible contractions that go too quickly. My labor and delivery nurse was wonderful though and she had a slow and steady approach to pitocin that was not aggressive and allowed my body to really experience a similar to natural labor.

At 3:30 my doctor came in, checked me (I was 5 cm) and broke my water and from then things moved and progressed quite quickly. Around 4:00 my pitocin was bumped up for the final time and my contractions tightened up naturally to about every 2-3 minutes apart. Around 4:20 I looked at Eric and told him there was no way I was doing this without an epidural. The nurse called the anesthesiologist and checked me (I was 7.5 cm). It was only another 15 minutes worth of contractions and the doctor was in. Around 5:00 we had an epidural and I was feeling good.

Once the epidural was in and I was feeling human again it was just a waiting game. Around 5:30 I told Eric that I felt a lot of pressure and that it might be a good idea if I got checked out by my nurse. She gave me a quick check and I was complete and ready to go.

My doctor had another patient in the room next to me and had told me earlier that she and I needed to coordinate our labors so that we were not both delivering at the same time. Well, we didn't cooperate but it is a good thing that I am a very fast pusher and managed to beat her to it! My doctor came in and got set up and 3 rounds of pushes (about 4 minutes) later Oliver Benjamin was here!

Most of my previous deliveries I have needed the NICU team to be in the room to do a great job sucking the baby out due to meconium in my amniotic fluid. This baby was meconium free so they placed him right up on me and we got to snuggle right off the bat. It was so nice and such a different experience. The nurse then took him from me so she could do his APGAR testing (8/9) and wipe him down a bit better. Then I got to do skin to skin time and even nurse him prior to his weight being checked. It was really, really cool.

Oliver Benjamin weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces and was 21.5" long. He has a 14.5" head full of dark hair. He is so sweet and we couldn't be happier.

One More Night

This is our last night as a family of 7. Tomorrow morning I will be induced (if labor doesn't start naturally before hand) and this little man is going to make an appearance. Since this is the first time I have made it to an induction date it is different. I KNOW that this is the last night our family will be this size. So we had to take a picture.

When I got home from my appointment this afternoon and told the kids that their new little brother would be here tomorrow they were all SUPER excited. Andrew is almost beside himself with excitement and Zane is a close second. Gwen and Reid are both feeding off the energy of the big kids and Lucy is excited but scared. I can tell she is a bit scared because she keeps asking me about me dying at the hospital. I am doing my best to reassure her but frankly there isn't a lot I can say. I went through that when I was a kid too. You just have to ride it out and live through it.

After our normal picture the kids insisted on a picture of stinky feet. Oh my goofy crew. I love them so much. Can't wait to see what this new little boy is going to add to our family.

Holy Heat Wave!

You know a strange event has taken place when Washington State is the hottest state in the nation. We are enjoying 80+ degree weather in May and loving every second of it!

Since it was so hot I pulled out the sprinkler and let the kids have at it this afternoon when Andrew and Zane got home from school.

The girls and Andrew all had a great time with no reservations about just running and running through the water. Reid was not quite sure about the whole thing. Of course the spray was right at eye level. He did like getting piggyback rides through the sprinkler.

Andrew was quite the willing sherpa and kept him cool. It is so amusing to see how much Andrew has changed in the last few years. He used to be my kid that refused to run through the sprinkler because he didn't like the spray in his eyes. Reid is nothing like him though... ahem.

Zane was in a mood when he got home from school and didn't actually want to run through the sprinkler as much. He spent a lot of the day sitting next to me and reading.

Reid didn't quite understand that I didn't want him on my lap when he was all soaking wet. And Andrew was just deliriously happy that it was so nice.

Eventually Zane decided that he wanted to go play. He ended up running through a couple of times before he quit. I have to remember that he is my kid that doesn't do well in over 80 degree heat too. He just melts. I am hoping that this is a sign for a super nice, sunny, summer ahead!